Margaret Cho leans into Korean heritage for Aspen’s Solo Flights

Comedy pioneer Margaret Cho will bring her trademark wit and deeply personal storytelling to the mountains next week in her latest endeavor, “Mommy: A One-Woman Cho.”

Beginning 4 p.m. Friday, Sept. 5, and 7 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 7, at the Hurst Theatre, Cho’s show is a project 10 years in the making and a departure from her stand-up comedy. The piece is directed by Soenjae Kim, with additional material by Leah Nanako Winkler, and is part of Theatre Aspen’s Solo Flights festival, which runs from Sept. 2 to 7.

“For me, it’s very unique. This is a totally new kind of thing,” Cho said. “You know, it’s not my stand-up comedy. It’s a comedy, but there are a lot of really difficult themes in talking about familial abuse and talking about history.”

Cho is known as fearless, hilarious, creative, and charismatic. She advocates for anti-racism, anti-bullying, and supports gay rights. She’s constantly reinventing and expanding her career.

As a multi-talented performer, Cho is recognized for stand-up, film, television, and podcast appearances. She’s also an author, singer, songwriter, and plays guitjo, an instrument combining elements of guitar and banjo. Now, she’s venturing into the role of a playwright. 

In this genre-blending solo show, she takes on the role she often embodies in her comedy — her own mother — revealing inconvenient family secrets and themes of survival.

Cho was born Dec. 5, 1968, in San Francisco to Korean immigrant parents. She grew up in a diverse “old hippie” neighborhood, where her parents operated a bookstore on Polk Street. Her father penned joke books and newspaper columns that were published in Seoul, South Korea. Cho became a comedian at 14.

“It was just something that I knew that I was supposed to do, that I really loved doing, and that I still love doing,” Cho said. “I’m still endlessly fascinated with the art form of it, and, you know, I work at it every day.”

Cho auditioned and was accepted into the Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts, a public high school, where she became involved in the school’s improvisational comedy group, before attending university for a short time.

Cho admires stand-up icons Paula Poundstone and Joan Rivers. Cho calls Poundstone one of her absolute favorites and Rivers incredibly inspirational. She continues to perform in front of an audience to refine and structure her jokes.

“It’s about figuring out how things are worded and the perfect way to say something. For that, you definitely need an audience,” Cho said. “So I still perform all of the time, you know, in small venues and different kinds of things.” 

Cho said she’s a political person, which she reflects in her standup comedy.

“If you’re not political,” she said, “it’s really because you’re not paying attention. There’s a lot going on that needs to be addressed.”

For Solo Flights, Cho said her collaborator and writer, Winkler, has helped her tremendously.

“She’s just phenomenal, and she’s been on this project from the start, as with many other projects,” she said. “We worked together on a lot of different things. She’s just fantastic to help me realize this for the stage.”

Cho also praised the director, Kim. 

“She’s incredible, and she’s very familiar with people like my mom,” Cho said. “She’s Korean, so she really knows what this story is. And so it’s really profound to be able to work with these two other Asian American women on this very exciting Asian-American story.”

Cho became familiar with Aspen in the early 2000s, when she would attend the Aspen Comedy Festival every year. 

“It was very popular, and we would all get altitude sickness. Every time I go, I get altitude sickness. So we’ll see what happens. I will need oxygen, probably,” Cho said. 

If you can’t get enough of Cho, she is also on her “Oligarchy” stand-up comedy tour. For more information, go to margaretcho.com/.

Tickets for Solo Flights range from $35 to $50, with the exception of the matinee performances, which have a “pay what you can” option, with a $10 minimum for standard seats. These seats are only available to purchase in-person, and are not available to purchase over the phone or online. For tickets, visit //theatreaspen.org/solo-flights-2025/.